Crow: ASU can be global center of development

Michael Crow spoke recently in Tempe on the future of Arizona State University. Afterward, he took questions from audience members. Here are excerpts of the ASU president’s answers.

Question: Why do you do this? You’re at this 24/7. You’re at events all the time. (Your job is) ... 14 or 15 hours a day.

Answer: When I was growing up (in a Navy enlisted-man’s family), we couldn’t play with children of officers. It was really weird. How can somebody hold somebody else back? It’s about finding ways to not hold people down, to allow talent to emerge.

I began reading immense literature on the success of the forward progress of humanity. Adaptation. You could see at the end of the day it was about positive delivery, using better processes, better tools, better ways of doing things. That’s how you make progress. That’s how the United States became so successful.

If I can contribute in this area where the success of the country (is involved), it makes me feel it’s worth it. ... Take this model of higher education and through technology make it better for the individual and make it more cost effective for the individual.

Q: Can online courses truly be an effective learning tool?

A: Will those courses replace face-to-face learning? The answer is no. They will augment, they will enhance, they will empower and deepen it, and they will lower the costs.

It’s not one or the other. It’s all. It’s all.

Q: How do you justify the expenditures on research?

A: That’s an interesting question. How many of you have eaten a tomato or tomato product in the last week? .

The tomato that we eat is a product of about 300 years of complex hybrid breeding, 150 years of complex science, about 40 years of unbelievable genetic science that enables you to walk into any store in the United States, even in small towns in Arizona, and acquire for yourself tomatoes and eat them.

About half the research that goes into the tomato and tomato-based technology are done at universities. I’m only picking a simple one that you can put into your body.

The research we do is so our life can be made better and our life can be made happier. The scientific undertaking by the universities and others in World WarII was unbelievable. For those reasons, around 1950 the United States decided on a bipartisan basis to become a major investor in fundamental science- and technology-oriented research. In 1950, ASU did not participate in that. But now we do, in a significant way.

If you’re trying to produce a learner, who has the capability of learning anything, you might have to teach them in something other than a cinder-block classroom with wooden desks. They might have to work in an interactive research-oriented learning environment to enhance their ability to solve problems and adapt for the future.

That’s the second reason for research, is to enhance our education outcomes of our students. Tens of thousands of our undergraduate students are involved in research.

Q: What do you think about the future of athletics in higher education, and why do you spend so much time on it at ASU?

A: For more than 120 years, American colleges have competed against each other athletically. It’s an important part of our culture.

I hope college athletics can be as competitive as ever but perhaps driven by fewer $5million and $6 million per year college-football coaches and $1 million per year assistant coaches.

I met with coach (Todd) Graham at the end of his first season. I repeated to coach Graham that our model for his compensation, his immediate salary, is a salary in the middle of the coaching salaries. Then, if he did really, really well, an incentive salary for your success. Not a runaway salary, every year over year over year.

Q: How do you make your decisions on the future?

A: This has grown out of what the community wants. This is the university the people of Arizona want. I have no doubt about this direction, this trajectory, this purpose.

We are going to judge ourselves by who we include and what we ultimately do vs.who we exclude. If this university and other major public universities don’t take on this notion of broader inclusion based on merit, we have deep, deep, deep social issues awaiting us down the road. And deep, deep, deep under-performance, economically, awaiting us down the road.

This is the model. It goes all the way back to the Arizona Constitution. It said to build an egalitarian university. This is an egalitarian university. This is an egalitarian model. And 100 years from now, this university will be successfully advanced on this model.

The most important part going forward beyond 2013 is this vision statement. ... It’s really a one-page strategy.

We have slightly modified it by saying, “ASU is the model for a New American University, measured not by who we exclude but rather by who we include and how they succeed.” We have added that because we want to be measured by their success and held accountable for their failure.

We have four specific goal areas. This is really important.

To demonstrate American leadership in academic excellence and accessibility. An American public-research university must demonstrate accessibility and excellence.

You can see how we hold ourselves accountable, by enhanced quality while reducing the cost of a degree.

There are some of you ... (who will say), “Don’t come around and talk to us anymore because you have gone to the dark side. You are working for some sort of academic devil. You are trying to lower costs. You can’t have quality if you lower costs.”

Well, watch.

Establish national standing in academic quality and impact of colleges and schools in every field. We will not have a college. We will dismantle it and start over if we can’t be in the upper 5 to 10 percent of all colleges of its type. We’re going to have accessibility ... and excellence.

This is a new one. We had one that said, “Establish ASU as a national comprehensive university.”

We believe between 2010 and 2012 we achieved that. So, now we set this new goal: to establish ASU as the global center for interdisciplinary research and discovery and development by 2020.

That means the leading place on the planet. Now, you can tell me, “He’s crazy. It can’t be the leading place.”

Well, actually no ... this is an attainable goal. An identity for us. The place where the disciplinary boundaries are such that we can be the leading place on the planet.

Regent (Rick) Myers has also articulated that other goal for us: $700 million a year of research.

Also, enhance our local impact and social embededness. We will be embedded in this community at every possible level.

These (are the) four goals.

This does happen to be a democracy. It happens to be built on the principle that your family is not the determiner of your fate. That your parents’ income is not the determiner of your fate.

This university will accept that as a principle and operate moving forward from that perspective. And have high academic standing.

I do not understand why people think we can’t attain this. We have attained it. We are attaining it. And we will attain it at an even higher level.

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